Issue 1, 2012

Effect of surface pressurization on the growth of α-Fe2O3nanostructures

Abstract

By suitably pressurizing iron substrates under different conditions, the resulting α-Fe2O3 nanostructures, formed by its direct thermal oxidation, can gradually change in succession from nanowires to nanoleaves and to micropillars as the pressure is increased. The inter-relation between the pressure conditions and the resulting nanostructure is studied by density functional calculations using ultrasoft pseudopotentials with a plane-wave basis method and with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). It is shown that the shape of the formed nanostructures is primarily determined by the anisotropic activation energy and, as the latter is lowered, there is a shape change from wire to pillar. A simulation model of diffusion using the Monte Carlo method is applied in the 3-D (dimensional) case to show how the anisotropic activation energy influences the growth process of the α-Fe2O3 nanostructure. The present study provides a way to control the shape of the nanostructures grown by the thermal-oxidation method.

Graphical abstract: Effect of surface pressurization on the growth of α-Fe2O3 nanostructures

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Sep 2011
Accepted
15 Oct 2011
First published
09 Nov 2011

Nanoscale, 2012,4, 257-260

Effect of surface pressurization on the growth of α-Fe2O3 nanostructures

Y. Xu, G. Yun, Z. Dong, P. Kashkarov, A. Narlikar and H. Zhang, Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 257 DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11298H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements